Hunt for Europe's least spoken language
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- The far northern coast of Latvia is home to a place called Livonia, and once upon a time to a bunch of people called Livonians. The Livonian language was related to Estonian rather than Latvian and shaped by their access to the sea. Some articles state that the number of speakers remaining might be less than 20. Some state that it's already extinct. Let's head to Livonia and have a look for ourselves!
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As a Basque, I kind of understand what it is to speak a forgotten language that almost went extinct at some point. Thankfully many people fought to keep it alive to this day.
Thanks for the video, I appreciate how the locals were happy to help you around (and spoke unbelievably good English!!)
Thanks for the great message - long live Euskal Herria!
You are an inspiration for everybody
Excuse me, where I could learn Euskara if it isn’t thought as a language wanted to keep only within Basque people? I’m extremely interested in rare languages and see them extremely valuable.
@@aras75aka of course you are welcome to learning our language! Unfortunately, there aren't many resources for online learning unless you are a Spanish speaker, as most of the Basque learning courses are aimed at Spanish speakers who live in the Basque Country.
There is a channel called Basque Berserk who explains grammar concepts in English, you might want to check that out
@@osasunaitor Thank you very much!
Hi! It's so intresting to see this, cause i am In fact, I am one of the speakers of the Livonian language, and my nationality is Livovian. The Livonin native speakers are not extinct, some are still there. In fact, my family and I always spoke the Livonian language when we can and with friends too. It is simply difficult to talk on a daily basis if everyone lives in their own village all around Latvia. There are far more Livonian villages than has been shown here. But I respect the intress! 🧡
Fantastic news - I hoped the language would be a bit more alive than what I found here. As you say - I'm just expressing an interest rather than reporting anything concrete or academic about the language. Simply an interesting culture in a beautiful place!
Is your village on Kolkasrags?
@@dontlookeast Near Mazirbe!
That is wonderful to hear! I'm a Latvian too and I am feeling deeply remorseful, irked, and furious to learn what the soviets had done to the Livonians. they destroyed so much culture across their sphere of influence. And still their mentality keeps destroying across East of Urals.
But on a positive note, I would like to know how i can learn Livonian. I would like to help preserving it. I hope some people still hold the fishermen skills and knowledge.
Yes, it's very cool to hear the intress. For now, learning the language is quite difficult, but there are various dictionaries, books and events where you can come across the Livonian language. This year, March 26, is declared the Livonian Heritage Day in Latvia, where the Livonian language will also be heard. Unfortunately, the Livonians are just beginning to recover and appear in the world again, so there are not many places to learn the language, it's. There are also not so many people who are able to teach it and learn it. 😥
@@murrr_1233 It's really an interesting language.
I just learned about it from the Estonian National Museum.
I'm so glad you are keeping it alive!
Thank you. As Latvian who was taught about Livonia and taken in school trips to Livonian land (then Latvia, of course), I have bought a book that teaches Livonian. You see, we Latvians aren't one language and aren't one culture. We are many- we learn Livonian to keep it alive; we learn Latgalian to keep it alive. We learn English and Russian, German, French, Swedish to spread the word of the language and dialects that we are keeping alive, along with our own. When you meet Latvian, they will speak many languages; when you meet Russian with Latvian passport, they only speak 1 language -not be the Latvian language.
Do you learn Swedish in Latvia?
Perhaps to be a Russophone is odd, but then again, it isn't a sin either.
@@No.1_ZIL-130_Fan Disliking Russians is a perfectly rational reaction to meeting Russians. Awful goddamned people.
And do not lie that all Russian people in Latvia do not know other languages, some even know Latvian.But another thing is why do Russian people need the Latvian language?
@@imperskiikulak446 People who want to live in Latvia, should learn to speak Latvian.
Interesting, as an Estonian, I can understand most of the poem in Livonian.
Even though I can't understand a word, it sounded like Estonian spoken with some Latvian accent to me, very interesting!
As a finnish person i also understood a fair margin of the poem.
@@Jo-MMNow that you have commented and I have listened to the poem again, I realized that its the Livonian version of the Estonian poem “Kas tunned maad” (ua-cam.com/video/1F-IxiGKuBM/v-deo.htmlsi=0RLWUmxJU0Zmrh5c 2:19) which is also a very popular patriotic song in Estonia. I don’t know how I didn’t realize it before, it’s pretty obvious now thay I think of it.
@@rupsikas1950 Interesting
@@Jo-MM
Especially if you know old-fashioned Finn vocabulary and southeast dialectal words.
Livonian is so close to estonian that as an estonian I can understand 90% of what they say. Well, it's no wonder since they live right next to us.
You could have contacted and spoken to the head of University of Latvia's Livonian Institute's Valts Ernstreits, who is fluent in livonian, latvian and estonian. He has extensive knowledge of both the language and the culture of livonians.
You are right, and I would recommend anyone who wants to know more about the language head in his direction
I'm Finnish and I cannot understand anything of Livonian but quite much of Estonian. Is it like Estonian with a Latvian accent or?
Balts
90%? no way
It kinda helps that the poem she was reading seems to be the Livonian version of “Kas tunned maad” by Frédéric Bérat (Estonian version by Mihkel Veske) which is a well-known choir song.
PS. Bérat’s version is called “Ma Normandie”.
The poem made me cry. It was like hearing some of the last breaths of a dying language.
Wow, thanks for sharing
Beautiful, sad, yet uplifting, felt like watching the tail end of an extended funeral service with a tributary obituary. Truly amazing to see people preserving, even reviving those traces.
Very kind words indeed, thanks a lot.
There is somne hope, Tartu University has research team on Livonian, as well even some guy from Livonia got PhD on Livonian language.
The poem footage and music hit hard. I didn't understand it; but it was like a Eulogy for a dead culture from the last relative
beautifully said
I am half Basque half Cebuana our language was brutally suppressed during during the franco times thank fully it went through a revival and now has over 1 million speakers. The manx language was a extinct language in the 1970s but ever since it went through a revival it now has 3 thousand speakers. Never give up on your language and Culture livonian brothers and sisters!!!! Ez kezkatu betiko borrokatuko gara! Zure hizkuntza berrio hitz egingo da!!!!!!!!!!
Franco didnt supress basque speakers
@@migueliyominecraftero7778 Regional languages weren't *officially* illegal in the dictatorship, but there was a lot of extralegal repression towards them. If police officers found out you were speaking Catalan (I know about that from the stories my grandparents told me), they would treat you less favorably, maybe even fine you or register your house out of nothing. In the early days of the regime, even police beatings were common. I imagine this was worse in the Basque Country because of ETA presence.
@@migueliyominecraftero7778Do you somehow think Basque terrorism began as a fun hobby? They were being repressed, which is why some people went as far as to engage in political violence. How many fairly treated minority regions resort to terrorism, do you think?
@@Oujouj426 ok so muslims in todays France are repressed too because they commit terrorism? Flawless logic
Btw ETA activity ramped up during after Franco died, they were more repressed when he died?
@@Oujouj426No they weren’t. Basque separatism is left wing and rooted in communism, not nationalism.
Welsh is hanging on in there these days and that’s only because here in Wales, it is a top down approach. Meaning the Welsh government actively promotes and encourages use of the language. Our street signs, and official documents are bilingual and we have Welsh language radio stations and TV channels.
But I think that there are more Welsh speakers in Patagonia
That was happening long before there was a Welsh government.
As a Swede I've heard of Livonia in history, because it used to be a part of the Swedish empire, but I never knew much about it.
I am glad to learn something new, and I really like to visit too.
There are Livonia and Livonia... Medieval Livonia comprised what is approximately now Estonia and Latvia. When you are speaking about the Swedish Livonia, it is a smaller area in North of Latvia and South of Estonia. The Northern part of Estonia, which also used to be part of Sweden, was called... Estonia, and the southern part of Latvia was called Courland. This video was actually shot in in Courland, in a place that is called "Livonian Coast". All three provinces became governorates of Russian empire in 18th century, and in 1917, the governorate of Livonia was split, the Northern part becoming part of Estonia and the Southern part, together with Courland, part of Latvia.
It might seem a bit confusing, that the last Livonians lived in in Courland and not in Livonia, where they had merged to other people already earlier, but in the Medieval sense Livonia also comprised Courland, including the so-called Livonian coast.
i genuinely love this video so much.... it's so melancholic and chill
Thanks!
Thank you for the wonderful video. Seeibg the land of my childhood through the eyes of a curious stranger feels bittersweet and fills the heart with warm melancholy. As a descendant of Livonians I regret not speaking this language. My grandfather didn't pass his language on since in those times it was seen as uncool and was often mocked and seen as rebellion against the soviet regime. Thank you for your sincere video!
Just wondering, Cornwallish, a Celtic language which was also almost completely forgotten and still is not spoken in a more general fashion, could be an inspireration for these people to keep their language alive. Many people who speak multiple language know how important it is, even distinct languages. Livonia is part of European history and it's language comes along with it.
Lol!! It's Cornish. Or to give it it's proper name Kernowek.
As a Cornishman I have to admit I'm not fluent in it but I can swear very well using it.😂😂
Yes cornish was functionally extinct but recently there have been conservation efforts, like other celtic languages including Manx, and most famously/successfully Welsh. Wales has been re-claiming its authentic Welsh place names that the English re-named for the purpose of English ease of use. In example, the snowdonia mountain range is actually called Eryri.
@@ZacAttackk and not to forget Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa
Kernewek
Cornish is a revived language, it disappeared in the 18th century
Nice video. You might be interested in the Rusyns, the indigenous people of the Carpathians (who were also forbidden in the Soviet times).
Yes! I am interested! Haven't been anywhere near where they live yet, but hopefully I can go out that way in the future
@@dontlookeast If you decide, you can let me know. I can try to get you in touch with some local activists.
@@vladimirskala there is also the Vojvodina Rusyns, whose dialect is doing a lot worse than the main group in Carpatho-Ruthenia
It's a very interesting dialect. @@bighillraft
The problem with Rusyns is that Ukraine still does not recognise them as an ethnic minority and insists they are just Ukrainians. They receive no protections and are Ukrainised. After the Second World War many of the Rusyns that lived west of the Curzon line were deported by Soviet authorities into the "Recovered Territories" along with many Poles that lived in the lands that were granted to the Ukrainian SSR.
That reading in Livonian by the end of the video was absolutely haunting. So beautiful.
Thanks a lot!
Latvia looks totally beautiful. I wish I could visit
This is great! I was sad to hear in a great document I recently saw that the last *native* speaker of Livonian, a lady called Grizelda, died in 2013 (in Canada, at age 103!) :( But I'm happy to hear here that the language is still kept alive, in some way! Maybe some day soon there will be new native speakers, who knows? :)
There is a Livonian native speaker, she was born in 2020
Thank you for a beautiful video. As a Slovene I feel sad at how they let it go in the end; in the times our people were fighting hard to keep ours alive. But the fishing scene reminds me of when I was studying Slovene littoral dialects around Trst/Trieste. They had their own fishing culture too, their own specific way of speaking. The people got left behind/stuck in Italy, their boats and fishing culture abandoned, and only the really old generation keeping the memory, and the marine dialect alive. It's not about jobs, but a piece of the soul of the people dying.
Which is also the reason I love learning at least a bit of the local languages, to share in the soul of the people and the land, and to keep it thriving.
Fantastic comment, Trst is an interesting place
Those lost rotten fishermen boats in the woods laying there like the skeletons of ancient animals, very impressive.
They have the same tradition on the island of Gotland in the Baltic sea: old fishing boats are never cut up or burned, but left on the beach to slowly decay over decades. The old boat skeletons turn into a beautiful feature of the landscape where land meets the sea.
Scottish Gaelic is growing which is great. Great video by the way
The nature there looks so nice and peaceful
as a Livonian myself i dont even understand my own language
Sad...
Maybe learning it?...
you do know that many modern livonians dont know theyre own language right? the last fluent livonian speaker died in canada
@@Smartness_itself
as you heard and saw in the video maybe you didnt since you replied to me with this so clear your ears out my friend but as the livonian woman said all the native speakers have passed and we do not speak to eachother in livonian anymore since the language is very hard for us modern livonians @@attilahalmai4590
also fun fact i know you probably wont expect this since you commented this in the first place but its actually very hard to learn a language that is barely spoken by my people anymore (ik shocking isnt it) @@attilahalmai4590
You are doing a good job. May you be blessed!
what would be cool is if you went to Turukhansky District (perhaps the village of Kellog) in Siberia to find the last remaining speakers of the endangered Ket language, which is the last remaining language of an ancient language family (Yeniseian) that stretches back thousands of years and also has many distant relatives in North America (Dene-Yeniseian). I know that’d probably be a pretty remote and hard destination to get to lol
It's actually already on the list! Great knowledge
So interesting. I am from Chicago and we had a large Latvian community here. They have moved out to the suburbs and intermarried so there is no longer a Latvian community, but I always had an interest in the Baltics, even though I am not from that heritage myself. Years ago I performed in an operetta "The Fortuneteller" that referenced "Livonia" but I'm not sure Victor Herbert knew the true origins of Livonia. Thank you for a very informative video.
There is still a large Lithuanian community in Chicago, right?
@@Oberschutzeeyes, but it's smaller than it was in the 80s. Since Lithuania became a member of the EU, in 2004 there's less of a reason to move overseas.
I don't think that's the reason why Baltic communities became smaller in the US. Assimilation is the cause and not preserving own cultural heritage... @@cimbalok2972
@@Oberschutzeeyeah theres a Lithuanian culture museum in Chicago. Around 63rd and Pulaski
I have an online mutual that I met (rather unusually) on Roblox many years ago that is Livonian. She knows just enough for very basic question-and-answer type conversations and I remember her telling me about a course in a local university to study and keep the Livonian language alive.
Honestly I am still quite skeptical about their claims since there are only 700 people in the world who claim Livonian identity but I hope it's true that such a young person in Latvia is still holding on to their Livonian heritage.
Man, the internet is a wild place!
Good video.
Thanks!
Exciting and tragic at the same time to hear about this language. I am Swedish i.e. from the other side of Baltic sea and this region was part of what we called/calling? Livland (parts of modern Estonia and Latvia) -->> which probably is connected to the name of this language Liv-onian. Historically it was also occupied by Sweden long ago. I don't know the details by heart but just a reflection I made watching this video.
Like all these endangered and recently-extinct languages, one of the best ways to preserve them or to revive them is to teach them to young people in schools. Children have an innate capacity to learn languages that diminishes as they grow older.
As a native language speqker it's awful to see the state of some of these ancient languages which tells a history of the people who used the language. A loss or culture and a story. I'm just glad that my language has had a very successful revivial story with some 750,000 speakers to my knowledge, more wirh some knowledge of it. I hope the interest in these minority languages continues to grow so they are not left forgotten. Other languages that come to mind that need protecting is Basque, Breton, Belarussian, Corsican and Cornish.
Very cool video! This was so cool of you took make it about this niche topic!
My ancestors came from Ireland and I've been relearning the language so it doesnt die out.
I could hear that the language is related to Finnish, but very distant. I would guess common words like water, hand, bread, ocean, etc are still pretty similar.
you are correct sir its near estonian so it near finnish latvian influence. It was never wide spred language but it reserves its place on Latvia. Its ancient language like Võru
Well, relatively not that distant, it is, along with Estonian, one of the closest relatives of Finnish. For instance Hungarian is actually very distant.
I also heard several times the word maa, land.
@@patrickuotinen meri maa kivi puu those are near in any finnic language
Kolka and Kolkasrags is a beautiful place, spent a few days there in 2008, had it as a base for my motorcycle journey in the western parts of Latvia. I visited Latvia the first time (been there 8 times now, I think) in 1992, as a member of a group in participating in a students' exchange program with Helsinki university. A friend of mine had then the opportunity to meet some Livonian speakers. The country had just got back its independence and there was also some optimism about also reviving the Livonian language, but everyone who spoke it then was really old. Those who my friend met (and wrote an article about) were maybe some of the last ones who actually used it everyday, as their primary language.
It's pretty much gone as a spoken language, but since Livonians were one of the tribes, who are part of Latvian nation, it's one of the reasons, what makes Latvian so different from it's closest related language - Lithuanian. There definitely is noticeable Finno-Ugric influence in Latvian, like from afar it even sounds like Finnish, despite languages being nothing alike, but when in Helsinki, I multiplie times had that impression, that people speak Latvian, yet as I got closer to them, the illusion waned. Likely that's because there are similarities in articulation and maybe because of "uo' sound, like that in words Suomi or Latvian ola (pronounced "uola"), joma (juoma) and oma (uoma) or the word I' like to torture English speakers and others with - lolojot (luoluojuot). 😆 Besides there are quite a lot of Livonian loanwords in Latvian, many of them related to sea and fish.
Im suprised i can actually understand and vaguely make out what she's telling in her poem... Some big simularities with estonian. Although i could also recognize the latvian influence in the form of the z, š and ž voicings
Another major reason why Latvian language is much different to Lithuanian is USSR occupation. Russia tried to completely destroy the culture and language of the Baltic States, but only succeeded partially in Latvia. They got rid of soft "r" ( ŗ no longer exists even in spoken Latvian, nobody says "jūŗa") and long "o" (ō, although at least this one is still used in speech), as well as many other things in grammar and spelling.
But Latvian is a Indo-European, and Livonian is Finno-Ugric?
@@alicelund147
Yes, exactly.
And because they are so different, some Livonian loan words in Latvian may seem odd and don't quite obey the usual grammar rules. Like "puika" (a boy) is a masculine noun (duh, obviously), yet it has "-a" ending, as a typical feminine noun in Latvian would.
@@TotalRookie_LV Your example shows how much similarities there are around the Baltic Sea; in Swedish one word for boy is "pojke" that is a loanword from Finnish "poika" (From when Sweden and Finland was the same country).
7:13 never knew Lisbonian was a language, interesting 😅. Anyway loved the video! 👍
thank you for bringing this very intresting part of the baltic history - this is precious
That's not so bad, actually. Considering the age we're into, this language may still be revived. Many languages have gone extinct throughout ages and stand little to no chances of ever being spoken again. If we take Baltic languages, for example, majority of known ones no longer exist, with last native speakers dead hundreds of years ago. My favorite example is Prussian, which is not only completely extinct, but is also associated with dialects of German (Low Prussian and High Prussian), because it were German speakers who occupied Prussian lands in 13th century, AND these dialects will probably go extinct soon as well. So basically there was a language, it was "replaced" by two completely different ones due to military occupation, eventually went extinct, and now those replacement languages are also moving towards extinction.
The "i'm not that organized" got me, good one.
Limbaži, Adaži, Viekaži, Vaigaži, etc. The ending -ži shows the livonian roots of those places.
Your videos have reminded me of Bald and Bankrupt (without some of his awkward public interactions lol) in the way you go towards more isolated areas to see what life is really like, and show people the places that many will never even know existed. amazing video man, Ive always loved hearing about cultures and people that history mightve overlooked, when i was learning russian i came across many places and people spread across everywhere the ussr influenced and it seems like the livonians arent alone in this type of fate, im glad they still exist and have people to keep it going, makes you wonder what kind of people and culture didnt get so lucky that well never really be able to hear spoken by a native or understand the nuances of the cultures
Wow thanks for the kind words (but I do have plenty of awkward public interactions!)
As a native Scots Gaelic speaker, my Mum is already right behind them.
☺️
I'm very happy that the algorithm choose "budget Jeremy Irons" telling me about a place in Latvia and some nice flags. Thanks, Algorithm. Thalgorithm
Budget Jeremy Irons! I'm putting that on a business card!
This made me think of the last native speaker of the Sned Berber language in Tunisia she died some 60 years ago .we.don't know anything about her and the language wasn't recorded either
When she said Livonian is still "mostly in songs", I thought of verse three of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ...
"Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwlad tan ei droed,[e]
Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed,
Ni luddiwyd yr awen gan erchyll law brad,
Na thelyn berseiniol fy ngwlad."
English -
"For though the fierce foeman has ravaged your realm,
The old speech of Wales he cannot overwhelm,
Our passionate poets to silence command,
Or banish the harp from your strand."
You can't die as a culture while you still have your songs.
thank you for making this one. it's genuine, but also tragic. I remember when I went to Russian school in Riga during our Latvian lessons we were told: only 46(?! I guess) Livonians were still alive. I hope I'm not confusing that number with those who spoke Livonian. it was in the late 90s
Wow, that's interesting!
Nice video. Beautiful poem at the end.
"I came here to find the least spoken language in Europe" "Too late, no one speaks it (for real) anymore."
real clickbait here!
That coastline reminds me of nothing as much as the western Lake Michigan shore of Michigan. From the forest trees to the sand to the water, it looks almost identical
I just read about Pretaolo in the Abruzzo region. Apparently only 28 native speakers left. And Wymysorys which has only a handful of speakers - all over 80, bar one man.
Thanks for sharing forgotten cultures of Europe! Respect from Romania
Thank You for this video!
The last minute brought tears to my eyes, hearing an extinct language!... and thanks for the lady, for reading up that poem! I am so sad that if somebody, person died!... I am hungarian, with also finn-ugric language, relative to the liv language... I hope that maybe, some time, some livian people will learn and use their language again!
I originate from Zadar, Croatia, neighborhood of Arbanasi, we have our own spoken language. There is about 4-5000 of us I believe that less than 300 people still speak it and understand it. It is an arhaic dialect of Gheg Albanian mixed with Croatian and Italian. It is listed as a European cultural non-material heritage, most definitely dying out, my dad and his brothers and sisters spoke it as well as Croatian, I know something nobody bothered to teach me, my kids only know the words I know.
Now this I didn't know, very interesting!
Just found your channel and im watching every video u made. 5 stars content.
Thanks! Good to have you in the gang
I remember in school when i was a kid we read about how the swedes were in a war with the Livonians over courland. Sad to hear that the language is dying out , but also interesting to watch . My acsestors spoke another language which died a long time ago, which were spoken in the baltics old prussian.
Prūsiskan is being revived. You could try learning it, maybe.
There’s one language that used to be spoken in Prussia called Pomeranian, and it’s still well preserved within some towns in south Brazil, specially in a city called “Pomerode” in the state of Santa Catarina, most people in this state including myself are direct descendants from Prussia!
@@pedrcaires Pomeranian is a West Slavic language.
So interesting! Here in Michigan, we have the city of Livonia.
I really liked the poem scene. Thanks for the impression on this langauge I otherwise wouldnt have known anything about.
Great video I never heard of Livonian nice to learn something new.
I actually made up a language in my head and ive never spoken it before so good luck finding me, i live somewhere in europe
😂 😂 😂 If you've not spoken it, I'm not bothering looking!
From the title I thought it was going to be Sign Language.
On Wikipedia it says a child has been taught to be a native speaker. Born this decade.
Interesting!
I am a Norman, our languages are dying, being replaced by both English and French.
There are many,
(Keep in mind amounts of speakers are from old sources, probably much higher than now)
Cotentinais and it's variants, (50,000 speakers)
Haguais spoken in La Hague,
Baupteis spoken in Bauptois,
Coutançais du sud and du nord spoken on the lower and upper half of the Joret Line respectively,
and Val de Saire to the east of Cherbourg
Cauchois, the language of Pays de Caux (50,000 speakers)
Jèrriais, the language of the Islands of Jersey and Sark which was replaced by English (2,000 speakers)
Guernésiais, the language of the Island of Guernsey which was replaced by French and English (200 speakers)
Augeron, the language of Pays d'Auge (100 speakers)
Sercquiais, the language of Island of Sark. (as of 2022 there are either 15 or just 3 speakers)
Auregnais, the language of Island of Alderney which was replaced by French by 1880, only 1 audio recording of it being spoken exists (Extinct, 0 speakers)
All of these come from Norman, which only has 20,000 native speakers.
Our Fore-fathers conquered England with William the Conqueror,
Sicily with Roger the Great, Robert Guiscard "Terror Mundi" and the Great Count Roger I,
Antioch with Bohemond of Hauteville
and Ireland with Henry II
If anyone who reads this has the time I suggest learning a Norman language. It is a good time to do so, before all the speakers take their last breaths, before our language and it's history are forgotten. Hopefully our languages thrive again.
Diex Aïe.
skill issue. anglo saxon better
thanks for taking the time to do this ,this area is not actually Livonia . Livonia is nth Latvia and sth Estonia . The Livonian people mostly mixed into the Baltic Latvians . Over time the Livonians became 2 distinct dialects - the Courland Livonians ( were u were ) and there was all so a smaller Livonian group at Salaca which actually was in historical Livonia . But that died out in the 1800s .
Yeah funnily enough, after the Polish-Swedish war in the 1620s, Courland was called the Duchy of Courland while most of southern-estonia/northern-latvia was called Swedish Livonia.
This video was really interesting. I love languages and the languages of the Baltic countries but had no idea there was ever a Livonian language. That stretch of coastline is so nice as well! Hopefully Livonian can have a revival like Cornish has had, gaining a few thousand speakers. Who knows 😁
one day the world will see the value in small states to increase each persons democratic influence and to embrace a world that consists of more diverse cultures. when that happens descendants of livonians will revive livonia as a nation, livonian as a language, and livonian culture too, and the world will be richer because of it. we have already seen a successful revival of a dead language, hebrew in israel, and restoration of a lost and shattered culture there too. it is possibly to reclaim cultural and language heritage. i hope one day the world will facilitate more nations existing and allowing each nation to have their own rich culture and unique language.
i come from a part of sweden that once were culturally quite unique, most of that today is lost and just some tradition remain, some unique words, and its own accent. but i think the world would be richer if the differences between us can remain and we can appreciate and experience different cultures instead of wiping them out and blend them all together and thing that sort of "diversity" makes us rich. blending two cultures together just creates 1 new culture, with 2 going lost. its a sad thing.
that is a good woman to keep her dying culture alive and sharing it with the world.
I like the way it sounds. It reminds me of hearing Beowulf read in the original old English it was written in
This was really heartfelt to me as a Megrelian/Laz Georgian.
Great! I was in Samegrelo last week!
The end spiral of Livonians started at the beginning of 13th century when Livonian leader Kaupo became vassal of Teutonic order and in the heart of Livonia local german powerbase Riga was established. Old latvian speaking Latgale tribes were living in areas more east todays Eastern-Latvia. Livonia was long time under Polish-Lithuanian influence after collapse of Teutonic order maybe that's why Latvian language started getting upper hand as they are close relatives to Lithuanians. Still Livonians and Latgale tribes were mostly peasants and got their written language quite lately (few centuries ago). Baltic Germans owned the land and people.
I find your video so interesting. I travelled in Latvia, from Ventspils in Courland to Klaipeda in Lithuania in 2022. The curonians disappeared in the 19th century but I thought there were still 20 persons that say Livonian is their first language, so sad that it’s almost gone. I wanted to go to Kolka because I’m also interested in its’ cold war history but time was not on my side. You didnt save me tge trip but I got to see what I missed. Latvia is a very beautiful and interesting country.
Thanks for the story, glad you enjoyed it
Don't mix Curonians and Livonians. Curoniansare a Baltic people, who had their own language, while Livonians are Finnic.
You should make a video on the Southern Sami. They are only a few hundred speakers, but I think that the language is growing again.
Great video as always! I advise you to look for Cimbrians, another minorance language wich is rapidly going extinct, and it's one of the languages with least speakers (only like 800 native speakers, and some more that have it as second language)
It's spoken in some little villages in the provinces of Vicenza, Verona and Trento in Italy. They have a particular language and culture, derived from their German origin
You should definitively check it out!
Very interesting - thanks for the tip!
@@dontlookeast you're welcome! If you want to go there, there are some associations of speakers wich try to keep the language and the culture alive (that is pretty different from the culture of the rest of Veneto, because of their Germanic origin) so if you want I could give you the links to their websites. And obviously, if you go there, that is near where I live (which is not far, like 40 km from the province of Vicenza) I would be more that happy to offer you a coffee!
lovely videography
although the last native speaker for Livonian had died in the early 2010s*, there is a Livonian language enthusiast couple who have been raising a child to natively speak Livonian since 2020, so there is hope!
*at least according to Wikipedia, since i've already seen some folks in this comment section who claim to speak Livonian natively
god I hope that one day i get to learn Livonian myself
As a Finn I can understand some words of the poem. It also sounds like Finnish and the story there feels familiar in tone... hard to explain, but I think I could learn this language quite easily. Estonian is more easy to understand, though.
It has one native speaker who’s 2 or 3 years old and was raised by Livonian learners who taught their child Livonian.
I just discovered your channel. Cool content :) and I like the simplicity of your videos, you get straight to the point.
I don't know if anyone has discovered this little detail yet, but just yesterday, I found out that there is this little girl named Kuldi Medne who was born in 2020.
It's said that her parents were apparently reviving this language by teaching their daughter Livonian.
This is so interesting. I guess the Russians didn’t want anyone to get the idea to take their boats and leave the utopia of the USSR. My grandfather’s fishing village in northern Estonia suffered the same fate. My grandfather and his family got away. They left the same night that the Red Army bombed Tallinn.
Interesting story, thanks!
I thought that Mirandese was spoken by very few people. The Dunning Kruger effect obviously weighed me down. But it was great to see Levonia.
That woman was so great! Great English too!
Frisian ! Still spoken but slowly disappearing. Once spoken from Denmark to Belgium now just a small part in the north of The Netherlands
In the middle of Soho in London is Livonia Street.
Great knowledge
Greatings from Sopot ,Poland !
Latvian is the only indo-european language with a fixed finno-ugric-like first syllable stress and also some vocabulary comes from it, so it's also true that every Latvian has some connection to Livonians, also genetic proximity. In the soviet times that coastline was a military zone and many Livonians had to leave so they essentially assimilated into Latvians. Still today the constitution of Latvia mentions Latvian AND Livonian as native, indigenous languages, even though Latvian is the only official one and the most spoken one. Due to soviet mass immigration and russification, there are also huge numbers of Russians in Latvia and their knowledge of Latvian is often very low, let alone Livonian which literally nobody speaks apart from some folk songs..
No it's not, Icelandic has fixed first syllable emphasis
@@EVO6- good to know. Where is that from, any clues if it's something to do with Finno-Ugric languages? And is it not so in Norwegian or Faroese?
@@martinskesteris8664 first syllable emphasis goes back to old Norse.
"Verner's law shifted Proto-Germanic /*h/ > /*g/ after an unstressed syllable. Afterwards, stress shifted to the first syllable in all words."
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse_morphology
It happened independently of Finno Ugric
WOw what an interesting video too learn about the Livonian language and their people i hope that their language can live on becuase it is such an cool language and people and that the livonians actually was made becuase of Swedish Empire during the 16th century when they took over the baltics and they called it Livland who was the land of the Livonians and they had their own language and culture there and it was so fascinnating too see that they called it Livonia which was almost like the swedish word for their land and i know that somewhere close on some islands on the coast in Estonia in Saremaa i think they have Swedish speaking people there who came from Sweden and moved there a long time ago and they speaking in an old dialect of swedish and celebrate swedish culture and customs.
Thanks! I have videos on Vormsi (Ormsö) and Ruhnu (Runö) which were very Swedish islands off of Estonia
My family escaped the Soviet occupation of Latvia and moved to Brazil (from Courland, just south of Livonia in the coast), and unfortunately the Latvian language was also lost on our generation of the family since being born in Brazil. So much has been lost because of the occupation. I was surprised to learn that Livonian is the least spoken European language. Thanks for this video, liels paldies.
Offended labus moment, cry about it
@@korneplodus4605??
@@korneplodus4605 ???????????? 💀
@@Oujouj426 It's an ethnic slur that russians have for Baltic people
@@PijusONLINEclassic Russian, mad cause they live in a shithole and we're doing better without them
is there a translation of the livonian poem somewhere? i'd love to read it and understand it.
If anyone ever finds it, please post it!
there is still hope for the language and its being revived at the moment by a young native speaker in latvia. who knows what will happen to livonian in the future
When a language dies you love, it's like a friend dies!
You'll always miss the memories and stories, so sad!
The French writer Jules Verne once wrote a book called "Un Drame en Livonie'' (A Drama in Livonia, published 1904)... but I haven't read it.
Im Germany , i don’t speak any Baltic Language .
Yet the start of the Poem sound a bit German like
As a Finn, the language in the poem at the end sounds recognizable, similarly to how Estonian sounds but less understandable.
Livonian reminds me a bit of Sami. I speak Northern Sami and Livonian looks quite similar, like Finnish also looks similar. Very interesting
vaďďa tšeeli, maatšeeli is propably as or even more rare. 2010 there was counted 15 living speakers when livonians is about 500. Another small finno-ugric group is ižoran keel(i) with 123 speakers. Its pity that lot of these small finnic tribes were lost in soviet reign of terror. As finnish i can understand what those people try to say. Estonian is still closer cousin of those language. And there is also smaller tribes dividefrom original language before old finnic like samojedic people of enetsit, nganasanit, or selkupit.
i live in finland and i know very little about finno-urgic languages and the history behind it. this is so cool!!!
this vid is very watchable. great video
Thank you for this!
As an Anglosphere Greek, I wholeheartedly hope that Livonian experiences a revival.
A language that also died was Istro-Romanian